Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives

These are pictures taken while exploring the Mount of Olives (where I live), which is east of the Old City. They were taken at different occasions.

This is the Jewish cemetery. It is huge! That weird building at the bottom left is Absalom's Pillar or Tomb. Absalom was King David's son who rebelled against him.

Me standing on Absalom's Pillar.

Me, Skyler, and Faith posing on top of these ancient tomb things.

View from the Dominus Flevit Church on the Mount of Olives.

The Church at Gethsemane where Mary was supposedly buried. 

Taken from inside the Grotto at Gethsemane. The Grotto is a real Gethsemane, which literally means "oil press".  Austen didn't know he was modeling for me.

My beautiful roommate Sarah in front of an awesome lemon tree!

View of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension.

Random

So, these are pictures from random places that we went to on free days. Free days are the best. We just get to explore the city on our own time and do whatever we want! Enjoy.

This was the first free day we had! We did the ramparts walk along the wall of the city. So cool!

View from the ramparts walk. We felt like we were on top of the world.

Random street in the Old City.

Entrance to Jaffa Gate, into the Old City

Me at the Wester Wall! This is the only part of the original wall of Herod's Temple.

The hot Israeli soldiers. I'm in love with them all.

Random door at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 

Our first field trip - I need to catch up!

So, yes I am behind. I only started my blog after Egypt! So this was our first field trip, we went to the Seven Arches Hotel overlook, which is on Mt. Scopus (where we live). We went to the Augusta Victoria Tower at the Church of the Ascension (not pictured). Then we went to this hill in Gibeah where Solomon had one of his houses, and Nabi Samwil.

Seven Arches Hotel Overlook. Great view!

The next few pictures are from Nabi Samwil, the supposed birth place or burial spot of the Prophet Samuel. Our professors told us otherwise, but it looks out to the valley of Gibeon, where Solomon came to pray to the Lord and he was blessed with his famous wisdom. The valley is also the location of a battle fought while the Israelites were trying to conquer the land from the Canaanites (in Joshuah's day). Pretty awesome!

Me, with the the valley of Gibeon in the background.

The building on top of Nabi Samwil.

The valley. Just picture a battle taking place there with huge hailstones and the sun standing still! Its a great story, you should look it up.

SINAI!!!

We hiked it at 3 in the morning and got there for sunrise. You can see the crescent of the moon at the top.

Headlamp and all

Thats not me, but I thought it looked awesome anyway.

MORDOR! I mean, the mountains of Sinai.

Some people took camels to the top...I heard it was not a fun experience.

Luxor and back to Cairo

Our Falukah ride down the Nile 

Our hotel on the Nile, the Sheraton. No big deal.

Karnak Temple

The great hypostyle hall at Karnak.

Abby, Sarah, and me!

Our carriage ride to the Luxor Temple.

Our tight quarters on the night train back to Cairo!

Abby taking a picture of the Bent Pyramid, in Saqqara.

The Red Pyramid in Saqqara.

Egypt: Pyramids of Giza

My whole group in front of the pyramids! Photo courtesy of Ashley Crist.

Khafre's Pyramid at Giza, the second largest.

Pyramid of Menkaure, the third largest at Giza. We went inside this one!

Walk like an Egyptian!

Me, surrounded by men. The usual. ;)

Pucker up Sphinx.

The Ramesseum.

Jerusalem and Jericho

The view from my balcony, sunrise.

Sunset over the city.

The day we walked around the walls of the city.

Jericho field trip!

Looking over the Wadi Qelt

The Judaean Wilderness

View of the Temple Mount and Mount Scopus (you can see the center in the distance) from David's Citadel.